Prep Sports Report: Clash of unbeaten volleyball squads Bellingham, Lynden on the horizon

After the first three rounds of volleyball and the first four in girls soccer, only one Whatcom County school among the 10 in the Northwest Conference is unbeaten in both sports: Lynden.

Rian Stephan, a 6-foot-1 junior, couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to play with her sister, freshman setter Izzie Stephan, for the first time on any team in their lives.

“It means the world to us,” Rian said of the chance to play on what would be Lynden’s first state volleyball championship team.

Also at Lynden, county soccer scoring leader Evelyn Saldivar, with a five-match scoring streak, also has a shot at helping to win the school’s first state title.

The Lions figure to face the stiffest challenge of the week. Lynden and the Bellingham Bayhawks will match records of 4-0 NWC and 5-0 overall at Bellingham at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26.

Chris Elsner, Lynden’s legendary volleyball coach, is the first to acknowledge that she doesn’t place any emphasis on volleyball history.

“We just keep the focus on improvement,” said Elsner, who has coached at Lynden since 1998, except for a break from 2009 to 2015 to attend to child-rearing.

As much as Rian Stephan would love another shot at winning state — where she helped the Lions finish third last season — she’s thrilled to finally be playing with Izzie.

“Volleyball has drawn us even closer,” Ryan said.

Prep football roundup: Pioneers looking to separate themselves in punishing Northwest 1A

Lyndend faced an unusual back-to-back challenge Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 17-18, when the Lions were called on to beat the other two county 2023 trophy winners, fourth-place Meridian and sixth-place Nooksack Valley in 1A.

Lynden (3-0, 3-1) beat Meridian (1-2, 1-2) 25-13, 25-16, 25-15. Freshman Brooklyn McDonald entered in time to gain credit for a match-ending block.

Sophomore Finley Parcher had 11 kills and Rian Stephan had 10. Kamryn Hermanutz made 10 digs and Lexi Hermanutz had three blocks. Izzie Stephan had 31 assists and three aces.

For Meridian, Melanie Short had 11 kills and seven digs, while Rylan Bernardy had 10 digs and Grace Wells recorded 16 assists.

The Lions beat Nooksack Valley (1-2, 1-2) 25-22, 25-21 and 25-18. Parcher had an outstanding showing with 18 kills, .351 hitting, 13 digs and three aces. Ryan Stephan compiled 11 digs and nine kills and Izzie had 27 assists. Kamryn Hermandez had 12 digs and three aces.

For Nooksack Valley, Payton Bartl had 20 assists, five digs and three aces. Fellow juniors Grace DeHoog had 10 kills and six digs and Annie Stremler made nine digs, while Elizabeth DeLange had five kills and two blocks.

“Our defensive specialist, Reese Nyhoff, took us on runs where we scored a total of 24 points while she was serving, with only one service error and four aces,” said Elsner, whose team suffered a 3-0 road loss to 4A Wenatchee on Saturday.

In other third-round involving county teams, Sehome (2-1, 2-1) beat Bellingham (0-3, 0-4) 25-12, 25-17, 25-18; Lynden Christian (3-0, 4-1) defeated Blaine (0-3, 1-4) 24-26, 24-26, 25-22, 25-10, 25-11; Burlington-Edison beat Squalicum (0-3, 0-4) in three sets, Ferndale (3-0, 4-2) overcame Sedro-Woolley 25-23, 25-18, 25-5; and Meridian defeated Mount Baker 25-10, 25-11, 25-12.

“We had a double-double for the second night in a row to set the tone and we had huge service runs in the second and third sets” said Sehome coach Clayton Sin, pointing to 10 kills and 11 aces by Hayden Niewiadomski (who also had eight aces) and 10 kills and 11 digs by Bridgette Adans. Makenna Andrews had 11 digs, while Paige Flory had nine digs and five aces and Emmy Lee had 20 assists and freshman Taylor Turrell logged 10 assists.

For Bellingham, junior Olivia Siemanowsky had six blocks.

LC’s Allison Wright had 10 kills, six aces and two blocks, while Ellie Pierce had seven digs and four aces. Ella Fritts was outstanding with 35 assists, nine digs and seven kills while Etta DeJong had eight kills and eight digs and Lyla Parriera had nine digs.

For Blaine, Teia Dube had seven kills and four aces, while Hannah Phelps-McDonald had 11 digs and Kaitlyn Harrington had 11 digs to go with 10 digs by Brie Smith.

“We got off to a pretty slow start but we began to find our rhythm and we had some people come off the bench and really helped us get going,” said LC coach Dennis Janzen.

Meridian’s Eden Bernardy had 9 kills, eight aces and 10 digs while Grace Pap had seven kills. Melanie Short had eight kills and seven digs and Rylan Bernardy had eight digs and Grace Wells turned in 23 aces. Mount Baker’s Maddi Lewis turned in 12 kills and six aces.

Squalicum’s Gwen Foy made nine digs, while Archer Burns had four kills and two blocks, Alysa Roselli had 11 assists, five digs and three aces and Penelope Durias had fouir digs, three aces and four kills.

In other second-round matches, Squalicum rallied past Blaine 23-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-21 and 15-4; Lynden Christian swept Bellingham 25-16, 25-10, 25-15; Ferndale defeated Mount Baker 25-6, 25-18, 25-15; Sehome fell to Burlington-Edison 25-23, 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-5; and Lakewood beat Nooksack 25-21, 25-18, 19-25, 25-22.

Squalicum’s Jolie Paz had eight kills and seven digs, while Burns had seven kills and four digs and Durias had six aces. Jazzy Bersola contributed a vital 14 assists in such a tight comeback.

Blaine’s Harrington had 13 kills and 11 digs to go with Dube’s 14 kills and 13 digs. Smith’s 39 assists were a highlight along with 12 kills and eight digs by Cathy Saunders.

LC’s Fritts had 31 assists and eight digs, while Sydney Terpstra and Jocelyn Eshuis pounded seven kills apiece. Ellie Meyer and Parreira had 10 digs each.

Bellingham’s Mary Lockhart had six kills while Bailey Purge had 14 assists and nine digs and freshman Sonoma Smith had three aces.

“We had some outstanding play from our back row people,” Janzen said. “They distributed the ball to Ella Fritts, who did a great job of distributing our offense. We had balanced scoring.”

Ferndale’s Brooklyn Larrabee had 17 assists and five aces, Katrina Ferry had eight digs and Svetlana Bardak made five kills. Mount Baker’s Annalee Cohn displayed her versatility with five aces, three kills, seven digs, five blocks and 11 assists.

Sehome got double-doubles in defeat by Adans with 13 kills and 14 digs and by Niewiadomski with 12 kills and 20 digs. Leah Lockwood had seven kills, 0.316 hitting and five blocks; Andrews made 27 digs; and Lee compiled 28 assists, six kills and four aces.

“Our senior, middle blocker Leah Lockwood, had an outstanding night,” Sin said. “Our senior captain, Emmy Lee, brought a lot of drive and motivation to score.”

In Nooksack’s loss, there were strong efforts by Bartl with 31 assists and 11 digs, by DeHoog with 15 kills and 13 digs; by DeLange with 15 kills; and by Stremler and Avery Juergens with three aces apiece.

Blaine picked up its first win 27-25, 25-14, 25-19 over Orcas Island. Brie Smith had 10 digs and eight kills, while Carly Saunders logged 10 digs and eight kills and Phelps-McDonald had 11 digs. Harrington had nine kills and 16 digs and Dube had eight kills to go with seven kills by Livia Werda.

GIRLS SOCCER

In the fourth round of NWC play, Lynden (4-0, 5-0) beat Nooksack Valley 2-0 (technically a forfeit, since Nooksack had too many injuries to continue the second half). Nooksack (1-3, 1-5) came back two days later to play a 1-0 non-league loss at Granite Falls.

Saldivar’s 10th goal extended her scoring streak to five matches, off an assist by Jayda Villars, who soon scored off an assist by Rylanna Newcomb.

“The Lions struggled mightily through the first 40 minutes against a fired up and resilient Nooksack Valley team,” Lynden coach Clark Bourgault said.

Bellingham topped Sehome 1-0 as the Bayhawks extended their streak of shutouts to five, with freshman goalie Uma Bachmeier playing the entire pressure-packed game. Sophomore Samiah Rowe scored in the 55th minute off an assist by Gracie Gouran.

Squalicum (3-1, 3-1) shut out Burlington-Edison with Kailana Perez in goal and freshman Siri Hoglin scoring two goals.

Mount Baker (0-3-1, 0-3-1) played a scoreless tie with Meridian (0-3-1, 1-3-1) with Melanie Wilson in goal for the Mountaineers and freshman Gretchen Zandstra for the Trojans.

Lynden Christian (2-2, 2-2) got goals from Kaelyn Hinton, Hattie Hendricks, Andi Anderson and Kayla Yun to shut out Blaine 4-0 behind goalies Hannah Terpstra and Jessa Wynstra.

Ferndale (2-1-1, 2-1-1) played a scoreless tie at Sedro-Woolley.

In the third round of NWC play, Lynden shut out Meridian 4-0 behind two goals by Saldivar and one each by Maliah Mitchell and Morgan Heutink.

“Saldivar’s second goal came on a knockdown assist from Brooklynne Bourgault. Our third game came on a nice cutback assist from Heutink and our fourth was a beautiful back post assist from Saldivar,” said Clark Bourgault.

Bellingham shut out Lynden Christian 2- 0 with goals by Beckett Ferry and Averie Hiddelll, while Squalicum earned a 4-0 win over Blaine with Perez in goal and goals by Hannah Bates, Ava Simmons, Ania Stawicki and Arya Sabado.

Nooksack Valley earned its first win 3-1 over Lakewood with goals by Lisette Flore assisted by Gretchen Elmendorf, and scores by Marie Byers and Alayna Dykstra.

Ferndale topped Mount Baker 5-0 as Hannah Waslohn and Kenzie Dawson scored twice each and Kayla Washington tallied one goal.

Sehome made it five total shutouts in the third round with a 2-0 win over Burlington as Kyle Ivcevic and Ayla Woodworth scored, with an assist by Madison Goodman on the second goal.

Ferndale picked up a 2-1 non-league win over Stanwood as Jaiden O’Neill played well in goal. Wasloan scored twice, with the first coming on an assist by Kasay O’Neill .

Blaine also picked up a 3-1 nonleague win over La Conner as Beatrice Dixon scored twice and Juliana Zuzarte also tallied a goal.

CROSS COUNTRY

Sehome and Squalicum swept the boys and girls meets in cross country competition against other county teams and Bellingham won both divisions in a four-way meet against teams from Skagit and Snohomish counties.

The team scores along with local winners and runners in the first four:

At Lake Padden, 2.6 miles

Boys: Sehome 20, Lynden Christian 48, Ferndale 81, Blaine 97

1. Nickolas Luce (LC) 3:22.62, 2. Nick Gargano (S) 14:01.28, 3. Sabastien Vahid (S) 14:01.55, 4. Heath Terry 14:05.86 (2.6 miles at Lake Padden).

Girls: Sehome 20, Lynden Christian 59, Ferndale 60

1. Katie Manley (F) 16:52..72, 2. Sydney Harri (S) 17:05.54, 3. Abby Rusk (S) 17:05.74, 4. Lil Desler (S) 17:05.94.

At Lynden High School, 5K

Boys Squalicum 15, Lynden 56, Meridian 74

1. Taylor Rush (Sq) 17:12.02, 2. Ty Hoffman (Sq) 17:16.09, 3. Jonathan Piper (Sq) 17:20.22, 4. Joseph Caloman (Sq) 18:02.19.

Girls: 1. Sloan Dickson (L) 19:05.51, 2. Logan Ignacio (M) 20:45.37, 3. Sandra Vought (Sq) 21:20.98, 4. Lucy Penner (L).

At Deming, 5K

Boys: Sedro-Woolley 21, Mount Baker 35, Nooksack Valley Inc.

2. Palmer Detta (MB) 17:14.22.

Girls: Sedro-Woolley 15, Mount Baker Inc., Nooksack Inc.

3. Hazel Grout (MB) 23:02.54, 4. Zoe Furtado (NV) 23:03.97.

At Skagit Valley College, 5K

Boys: Bellingham 32, Lakewood 49, Mount Vernon 78, Mount Vernon Christian 85.

1. Berkley Pass (B) 16:36.

Girls: Bellingham 30, Mount Vernon 44, Mount Vernon Christian 66, Lakewood 92.

4. Nora Alexander (B) 21.:50.

GIRLS SWIMMING

Bellingham extended its dual meet winning streak to 12 with a 120-27 win over Burlington-Edison and a 107-43 victory over Sedro-Woolley.

Bayhawks coach Matthew Buckmaster said eight more district qualifying times were logged against Burlington and Grace Sorensen had a state-qualifying 56.73 in the 100-yard freestyle.

Bellingham (3-0) swept every event in both meets.

Sehome (2-0) claimed an 88-78 win over Oak Harbor and a 126-39 victory over Burlington.

“It was a well-fought win over Oak Harbor and came down to the final few events,” said Sehome coach Lauren Heath. “We were helped by a crucial seven points between junior Emma Ellingsen and freshman Brielle Hicks in the 100 breast for second and third places.”

Bellingham and Sehome will meet Oct. 22 at the Arne Hanna pool.

Bellingham 120, Burlington-Edison 27. Bellingham Winners: 200 medley relay -- Bellingham (Hayes, Acord, Sorensen, Wilson) 2:03.08. 200 free -- Annika Holland 2:14.88. 200 IM -- Jasmine Garcia 2:41.33. 50 free -- June Wilson 28.40. 1-meter diving -- Madeline Fredette 130.45 points. 100 fly -- Garcia 1:12,98. 100 free -- Sorensen 56.47. 500 free -- Peyton Acord 6:03.02. 200 free relay -- Bellingham (Hayes, Holland, Wilson, Windram) 1:57.37. 100 back -- Sorensen 1:04.75. 100 breast -- Acord 1:21.26. 400 free relay -- Bellingham (Holland, Garcia, Sorensen, Acord) 4:07.18.

Bellingham 1078, Sedro-Woolley 43. Bellingham winners: 200 medley relay -- Bellingham (Holland, Acord, Sorensen, Wilson) 2:03.38. 200 free -- Iza Wilson 2:42.56. 200 IM -- Sorensen 2:15.53. 50 free -- J. Wilson 28.14. 100 fly -- Garcia 1:12.72. 100 free -- J. Wilson 1:03.07. 500 free -- Acord 5:53.90. 200 free relay -- Bellingham (J. Wilson, Palmer, Garcia, Sorensen) 2:02.78. 100 back -- Holland 1:14.95. 100 breast -- Acord 1:21.58. 400 free relay -- Bellingham (Sorensen, Niff, Holland Acord) 4:21.64.

Sehome 88, Oak Harbor 78, Coupeville 4. Sehome winners: 200 medley relay -- Sehome (Gharaei, Tellefson, Van Jaarsveld, Maden) 2:30.25. 200 free -- Elsa Ethelbah 2:32.20. 200 IM -- Priyanka Costanzo 2:55.11. 100 fly -- Ayla VanJaarsveld 1:18.53. 100 free -- VanJaarsveld 1:10.05. 400 free -- Ethelbah 5:24.01. 400 free relay -- Sehome (Costanzo, Gharaei, Maden, Ethelbah) 4:56.79.

Sehome 126, Burlington-Edison 39. Sehome winners: 200 medley relay -- (Maden, Costanzo, VanJaarsveld, Hicks). 200 free -- Ethelbah 2:17.68. 200 IM -- VanJaarsveld 2:35.06. 50 free -- Sage Maden 30.18. 1-meter diving -- Cora Burns 133.05 points. 100 fly -- Costanzo 1:20.42. 100 free -- Van Jaarsveld 1:03.07. 500 free -- Asa Ethelbah 6:05.34. 200 free relay -- Sehome (E. Ethelbah, Brogan, Hicks, Maden) 2:06.84. 100 back -- Maden 1:20.14. 100 breast -- Emma Ellingsen 1:35.49. 400 free relay -- Sehome (Ethelbah, Gharaei, Costanzo, Van Jaarsveld) 4:36.06.

BOYS TENNIS

After five rounds of NWC boys tennis, Bellingham and Sehome are 5-0 and may decide the title when they meet Oct. 2. Squalicum is 3-1.

Bellingham has won 33 of 35 matches in singles and doubles and Sehome has taken 32 of 35.

Sehome’s No. 1 singles player, Harley Kaiser, is 5-0 with a 60-7 set record. No. 2 player Zachary Chai is 5-0 with a 60-8 set record.

Bellingham 7, Oak Harbor 0. Bellingham winners: Jacob Kuih, Leo Kuhn, Marcus Hinderman, Alex Powell, Nate Lyon/Caleb Imbach, Taylor Watts/Colin Mannen, Kaiden Whitmore/Owen Bloom. Bellingham 7, Ferndale 0. Winners: J. Kuhn, L. Kuhn, Hinderman, Powell, Lyon/Imbach, Watts/Mannen, Whitmore/Bloom. Bellingham 7, Lakewood 0. Winners: J. Kuhn, L. Kuhn, Hinderman, Powell, Lyon/Imbach, Watts/Mannen, Whitmore/Bloom.

Sehome 5, Burlington 2. Sehome winners: Harley Kaiser, Zachary Chai, Justin Barras, Jae-Yoon Lee, Quinn Roocheron/Grady Boudreaux. Sehome 7, Mount Vernon 0. Winners: Kaiser, Chai, Barras, Ethan Kuzin, Christian Leon/Sean Lane, Lee/Joshua Friesen, Croocheron/Boudreaux. Sehome 7, Sedro-Woolley 0. Winners: Kaiser, Chai, Friesen, Noah Hankins, Barras/Lee, Leon/Lane, Croocheron/Boudreaux.

Squalicum 7, Sedro-Woolley 0. Winners: Ethan Oscarson, Andy Trink, Benjamin Ahn, Colin West, Jackson Legoe/Hudson Daughters, Owen Slind/Christopher Le, Soheil Hildebrand/Brendan Le.

Lynden 5, Ferndale 2. Winners: Jonas Carpenter (F), Kase Namminga (L), Aaron Long well (F), Jace Van Kooten (L), Cannon Bode/Hale Van Dyk (L), Luke Hoffman/Aaron McLendon , Jackson Wyant/Owen Visser (L). Lynden 5, Lakewood 2. Lynden winners: Declan Hurley, Jace Van Kooten, Bode/Van Dyk, Hoffman/McLendon/ No. 3 doubles Lynden by default. Burlington 6, Lynden 1. Lynden winner: Wyant/Visser/ Oak Harbor 7, Ferndale 0.